Malaysian State Bars Lawmaker Nurul Izzah Anwar From Campaigning

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Nurul Izzah Anwar at a rally in Kuala Lumpur last year. For Malaysian opposition leaders, restrictions on campaigning before Saturday’s state election are part of the frustration of going up against Prime Minister Najib Razak.CreditFazry Ismail/European Pressphoto Agency

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Nurul Izzah Anwar, an opposition member of the Malaysian Parliament, flew to the island of Borneo on Monday to participate in a local election campaign. She did not stay long.

Immigration officials in Sarawak, a semiautonomous state with its own border controls, refused to let her enter. Ms. Nurul Izzah took the next plane home.

“I am participating in legitimate political activity,” she said on Tuesday. “But I found myself immediately deported as soon as I arrived.”

The Sarawak vote on Saturday is the first test of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s popularity — and of his willingness to compete in fair elections — since disclosures that almost $700 million had been mysteriously deposited in his personal bank accounts.

Known for its dense rain forest and wildlife, Sarawak is set apart from Malaysia’s other 12 states by its semiautonomous status. It will hold elections for state and federal offices two years before the rest of the nation.

For Malaysian opposition leaders, restrictions on campaigning there are part of the frustration of going up against Mr. Najib, who heads Malaysia’s formidable governing coalition.

Ms. Nurul Izzah is one of about two dozen opposition leaders and activists who have been refused entry into Sarawak this year in keeping with a ban on “unsavory elements” imposed by the state’s chief minister, Adenan Satem.

Mr. Najib and Mr. Adenan are allies and appeared there together last week to kick off the campaign.

Mr. Najib has been campaigning in Sarawak during the past week in the hope that his candidates will win by a large margin.

Since the 1990s, Sarawak has banned political leaders and activists it deems undesirable from entering, but the deportations have increased considerably this year, according to a list compiled by the online news site Malaysiakini.

Asked about the ban last month, Mr. Adenan said, “I have to protect the interests of Sarawak from unsavory elements, political or otherwise. That is my job.”

He added that the deportees could return as tourists after the vote. “They are at liberty to come to Sarawak any time after the election,” he said, with a laugh.

In addition to leading Sarawak, Mr. Adenan is the head of the Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu party. It is part of the governing Barisan Nasional coalition headed by Mr. Najib. Mr. Najib is also president of the country’s largest political party, the United Malays National Organization, which does not have a presence in Sarawak.

Among those denied entry to Sarawak are the opposition members of Parliament Tony Pua, Rafizi Ramli and Teresa Kok, as well as the journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown, whose website Sarawak Report was blocked in Malaysia after she reported on Mr. Najib’s receipt of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali, a Najib appointee, cleared the prime minister of any crimes this year, but investigations of the leader’s transactions continue in more than five countries.

“Mr. Najib has been the subject of investigations spanning five countries,” Ms. Nurul Izzah said. “If anyone were to be barred, it should actually be him.”

Ms. Nurul Izzah is the daughter of the former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who is serving a five-year sentence for sodomy.

In the last national election, in 2013, opposition parties won a majority of the popular vote but ended up with far fewer seats in Parliament. That is because the district lines favor rural voters, who generally support Mr. Najib’s coalition.

In beginning the campaign last week, Mr. Najib called the Sarawak election a “precursor” of the next general election, scheduled for 2018. A victory this week, he said, according to the The Malay Mail Online, “will certainly form a very strong momentum for us moving forward.”

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A7 of the New York edition with the headline: Malaysian State Bars Opposition Candidate From Campaigning. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe